On Love and Death Paperback – 22 Nov. 2006

I love the honesty of Suskind's work and On Love & Death is no exception. Simple, yet beautifully Suskind guides us through life's great mystery of love. With love then comes sorrow, pain and ultimately death.His work needs to be celebrated and I'd highly recommend reading some of his others such as The Story of Mr Sommer or Maitre Mussard's Bequest... you won't be disappointed!

Created a bundle as a gift, all good

I had always thought that it couldn't possibly make sense to link the happiness of love with feelings of melancholy and sadness. I couldn't understand why even the most upbeat love songs could make me feel like crying, sometimes. It took the genius of the author of PERFUME , Patrick Suskind, to explain in this little masterpiece what true love really means: knowing that we are always only a tiny and very precious step away from its sister - death. We can't cherish one without the other. Thank you, Patrick Suskind, for explaining one of life's confusing mysteries, in such a beautiful and simple way. I bought five as Christmas presents, and will buy just as many for Valentine's - for my lover and a few exes, too....

Love is the union of two solitudes, a natural event for any species that is not parthenogenic; sadly, Suskind seems to think love is an expression of selfishness that mimics the nihilism of death.In his view, there is an erotic link between love and death. True, for a sorry few. For others who are fortunate, love is an awakening, a rebirth, a surging of shared confidence that makes anything and everything in the world not only possible but worth trying. Love makes people happy to go singing in the rain; too bad Tristan and Isolde didn't share this optimism. Nothing is impossible for anyone in love, as most who have been in love already know.Suskind thinks of love in terms of death. To counter this, look at a little kitten who rolls onto its back to have its tummy tickled. Kitten, cat, lion or human, all have a similar need for gentle touch and complete trust based on a shared love between tickler and ticklee. It's what love is all about; trust without having to verify. As I recall, "trust but verify" is common sense in loveless business dealings and European cynicism in human relations.He equates love with death. Perhaps it is to shock a trusting reader into considering the impossible, the better to understand reality. Perhaps he believes death is the ultimate form of love. This is a real view. The Rev. Jim Jones convinced almost a thousand people a quarter century ago that the ultimate love was to drink the Kool-Ade he prepared. Other cult leaders have had a similar impact on lonely, depressed, forlorn and lost souls.It makes this a very sad book. Perhaps this is European sophistication, always able to see the negative in any situation, always able to cry on sunny days because later it will rain. Europeans have a lot of experience of looking at the dark side of life, a fact well known among the Germans; they can't understand the perennial American spirit of optimism and hope.Looking for love? The answer isn't in dying; death isn't the ultimate expression of love. Looking for death? Fall in love, and you'll want to live forever; fall in love, and you'll forever be 12, or 20, or 40, or 80, whatever age it happens. Fall in love, and you never age.Anyone in love will never need this book. Anyone looking for love will find it depressing, sad and pointless. Both will find it a curious exercise in irrelevance. Perhaps that is why it fascinates. How can so little be written about so much with such insouciance?

Love is the union of two solitudes, a natural event for any species that is not parthenogenic; sadly, Suskind seems to think love is an expression of selfishness that mimics the nihilism of death.In his view, there is an erotic link between love and death. True, for a sorry few. For others who are fortunate, love is an awakening, a rebirth, a surging of shared confidence that makes anything and everything in the world not only possible but worth trying. Love makes people happy to go singing in the rain; too bad Tristan and Isolde didn't share this optimism. Nothing is impossible for anyone in love, as most who have been in love already know.Suskind thinks of love in terms of death. To counter this, look at a little kitten who rolls onto its back to have its tummy tickled. Kitten, cat, lion or human, all have a similar need for gentle touch and complete trust based on a shared love between tickler and ticklee. It's what love is all about; trust without having to verify. As I recall, "trust but verify" is common sense in loveless business dealings and European cynicism in human relations.He equates love with death. Perhaps it is to shock a trusting reader into considering the impossible, the better to understand reality. Perhaps he believes death is the ultimate form of love. This is a real view. The Rev. Jim Jones convinced almost a thousand people a quarter century ago that the ultimate love was to drink the Kool-Ade he prepared. Other cult leaders have had a similar impact on lonely, depressed, forlorn and lost souls.It makes this a very sad book. Perhaps this is European sophistication, always able to see the negative in any situation, always able to cry on sunny days because later it will rain. Europeans have a lot of experience of looking at the dark side of life, a fact well known among the Germans; they can't understand the perennial American spirit of optimism and hope.Looking for love? The answer isn't in dying; death isn't the ultimate expression of love. Looking for death? Fall in love, and you'll want to live forever; fall in love, and you'll forever be 12, or 20, or 40, or 80, whatever age it happens. Fall in love, and you never age.Anyone in love will never need this book. Anyone looking for love will find it depressing, sad and pointless. Both will find it a curious exercise in irrelevance. Perhaps that is why it fascinates. How can so little be written about so much with such insouciance?